Or piles, because as any sane person would, I've divided by books into different piles. I mean, who doesn't want to organise everything down to the minutest detail?
Of course, each individual pile is also carefully organised. Again, as any sane person would do, they are sorted in the order I want to read them. First I read the least interesting books, and save the best for last. This is in no way counterproductive and doesn't at all lead to the unfortunate situation where the best books go unread for a long long time and I just read less interesting books that end up at the top of the pile when I buy new books. No siree!
Another general organisational rule is that books are read in order of publication. Except with Paul Halter, for some reason, where I want to read them in the order that I find interesting. The exception that proves the rule.
So, without further ado, it gives me great pleasure to present to you my TBR piles.
1. Mysteries written by modern authors
I think most of you will know already that I'm not generally particularly interested in reading modern crime fiction. But there are authors who take the mystery genre seriously and try to write books that hearken back to the golden age.
Several of the titles above are written by such authors, and I've come across them - or rather recommendations of them - on other mystery blogs. For which, thanks!
Rhys Bowen - Crowned and Dangerous
The one exception here, this is mainly a cozy series which I started reading around ten years ago. They're really not all that awesome (there's absolutely no fair play), but quite breezy reads and the heroine is quite engaging.
Lee Sheldon - Impossible Bliss
Recommended by J.J., it sounded interesting enough that I managed to get it for Christmas.
L. C. Tyler - The Herring in the Library
The Puzzle Doctor got me to read this series. I was in two minds after the first book, because it gave me the vibe of a Gilbert Adair thing, but the second novel turned things around, so now I feel quite certain I'll continue following this.
Dolores Gordon-Smith - Mad about the Boy?
Another PD (Puzzle Doctor) recommendation, the first book was engaging enough that I will try another.
Robert Thorogood - A Meditation on Murder
Well, "Death in Paradise" is great, and Thorogood's novels come heavily recommended from PD. I managed to get hold of all three books that have been published so far.
Nev Fountain - Cursed Among Sequels
PD again. The first two books were very amusing and good reads. I'd rather like Fountain to continue this than faff about with modern stuff.
J. A. Lang - Chef Maurice and the Wrath of Grapes
Guess whose recommendation? The first novel was great fun. Again a note to the author: Please continue this series instead of larking about with other things.
Eric Keith - Nine Man's Murder
I think PD was the first to recommend this, and then other bloggers took it to task. I'm still intrigued enough to want to read it, but it has moved down (or rather up) from its position.
Robert Thorogood - The Killing of Polly Carter
See above.
Anthony Horowitz - Magpie Murders
A novel that comes recommended from almost everywhere, this looks very intersting.
J. A. Lang - Chef Maurice and the Bunny Boiler Bake-Off
See above.
Robert Thorogood - Death Knocks Twice
See above.
And in the background of the picture you'll see a pair of binoculars and a glass tin which used to contain bolognese sauce and now contains foreign currency. :)
2. Dick Francis racing thrillers
The Dick Francis racing thrillers have long been favourites of mine, and even though he's now passed and his son Felix Francis is now writing them, I still like them enough to want them as they come out. I have three of them waiting to be read: "Damage", "Front Runner" and "Triple Crown".
3. Impossible mysteries
This pile contains mainly Paul Halter novels, but there are a couple of Clyde B. Clason novels, one by Alice Arisugawa and one by C. Daly King. I buy the Halter ones as they come out, but because I have so many TBR piles they tend to stack up. 😊
The King novel is the one I've had the longest without reading it - a true victim of my not at all anal need to save the most interesting reads for later.
Halter - The Phantom Passage
Clason - Poison Jasmine
Halter - The Vampire Tree
King - Obelists Fly High
Halter - The Madman's Room
Halter - The Tiger's Head
Clason - Green Shiver
Halter - Death Invites You
Arisugawa - The Moai Island Puzzle
Halter - The Seventh Hypothesis
At the top of the picture above you see the bottom halves of a number of SF novels (mainly Asimov in this picture), and at the bottom you see a number of fantasy novels I'm in the process of culling from my library. (Which explains why they're turned sideways.)
4. Adventure thrillers
The Dick Francis pile above probably indicates my interest in adventure thrillers. Since I already have all by Alistair MacLean and Desmond Bagley (and have read them several times over) I wanted to try out a couple of their main competitors, Hammond Innes and Gavin Lyall.
I've read two Innes novels (and am in the middle of reading a third, none of which are present on the picture above), while Lyall is still a blank slate to me. As you might see, if your eyes are good, these are all Swedish translations.
This is the only pile I haven't organised in reading order, I'll just grab any one from this shelf when I want to read them.
From top to bottom, and then left to right.
Innes:
The Angry Mountain
The Strode Venturer
The Strange Land
Wreckers Must Breathe
The Lonely Skier
The Blue Ice
Attack Alarm
North Star
The White South
Campbell's Kingdom
The Land God Gave to Cain
Maddon's Rock
Levkas Man
Atlantic Fury
Lyall:
The Wrong Side of the Sky
The Most Dangerous Game
Midnight Plus One
Venus With Pistol
Shooting Script
At the top and to the left you see parts of my fantasy collection, to the right are a couple of Anthony Buckeridge's Jennings books, and at the bottom you see the top halves of those SF books that you saw the bottom halves of in the previous picture. Try to figure out which novels are there! 😀
5. Reprinted mysteries from the Golden Age
Theodore Roscoe - Murder on the Way!
Christopher St. John Sprigg - Death of an Airman
Erle Stanley Gardner - The Case of the Velvet Claws
Alan Melville - Quick Curtain
Robin Forsythe - The Polo Ground Mystery
Georgette Heyer - Why Shoot a Butler?
Georgette Heyer - Penhallow
This is not a very large pile, and contains one book in Swedish. These also mainly come from recommendations by fellow bloggers, though Georgette Heyer I actually discovered on my own before reading any blog recommendations. Yay me!
With Heyer, I've read four other novels, so I have a pretty good idea of what to expect. I've read one other novel by both Melville and Forsythe, and liked them enough to continue investigating. The two other novels in English are there because of good reviews in the blogosphere.
Finally, the book in Swedish is a Perry Mason novel published by a good friend of mine. You'll find a link to his publishing firm's site ("Deckarhyllan") above, though it's not very helpful if you cannot read Swedish. Their mission is to publish heretofore untranslated GA mysteries - so far they've published this novel, Ellery Queen's "The King is Dead", the first novel by Earl Derr Biggers, and coming up are Carter Dickson's "The White Priory Murders" and Gardner's "The Case of the Lucky Legs", both of which I intend to pick up. The Dickson novel I even helped translate, and I also had some input on what short story to include as a bonus in it!
6. Young adult mysteries
Robin Stevens - Murder Most Unladylike
Siobhan Dowd - The London Eye Mystery
Robin Stevens - Arsenic for Tea
Robin Stevens - The Guggenheim Mystery
Robin Stevens - First Class Murder
As you see, this isn't the biggest pile either. But I have to admit that I'm rather partial to young adult mysteries, because I think there is too much padding nowadays in adult mysteries. A rant will follow in a separate post, because it became too long (and too much of a tangent) to keep in this one.
So, to get back to why young adult mysteries appeal more to me. I like lightheartedness (and a focus on plotting), and that's what I expect to get from the above titles. I think they've been mentioned favourably by J.J. on his blog, and probably elsewhere as well.
At the bottom of the picture, you see the very top of my SF/fantasy TBR pile, which I won't bore you with.
But I still have my final TBR pile left - as some of you may remember, I'm in the middle of a re-read of several of the big mystery names. That pile is just about as big as all the above six piles together, and that's why you won't get any description of it in this post. You'll just have to wait till the next one...
You may well have read about the Robin Stevens books at my place...I've only read The Guggenheim Mystery and First Class Murder, but I recommend both and really must get round to more of that series soon.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite excited to see what you make of Impossible Bliss - it's an imperfect but interesting and very well-written book, but I'll not reiterate the thoughts from my review here. It remains the jewel in the crown of my self-publishing adventures, and it's a real shame Sheldon never wrote a follow-up.
Also, I'm somewhat agog: does TBR stand for These Books Remain? All this time I've had it as To Be Read...
Only on the internet: A Swede informing a Briton about the English language. :)
DeleteTBR does mean To Be Read. I'm just having fun with the acronym. See also part two. (When it's published)
And I should get to "Impossible Bliss" at least before the spring is over, seeing that it is placed as number two in one of the piles...
As for the YA books, I had to have the one called "First Class Murder" since it's a train mystery, and then of course I had to get the earlier ones in the series as well. :)
Well, hey, almost everything else I blog about I manage to be incorrect on in one way or another...this just seemed another one of those times...!
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